The Runaway Hug (2011)

A beautiful story about a mom's hug that comes full circle and ends with a goodnight kiss. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the language style of the book because there was a pattern of specific events that kept happening throughout the story. Lucy is a young girl preparing to go to bed, but first she has to hug everyone in the household to redeem a hug originally given by her mother. The book follows all of Lucy's steps to achieve this goal. This was the overall focus of the entire story. The big idea/message of the story would be family/motherly affection. I didn't like how the book pushes readers to treat hugs like bills or loans you have to pay back. Lucy hugged her mother and had to keep hugging the rest of the household so she could give her mothers original hug back to her. Also, the illustrations did not enhance the story at all. They instead put a dull mood over the whole story because of the dark, neutral colors. ( )

A little girl gets a hug from her mom and believes its the last one. She runs around the house hugging her family members and making them hug her back so she can get the hug back. At the end of the book she "looses" the hug to her dog, who runs off before she could hug the her again. Eventually she gets the hug back and makes sure she has it at bedtime to give back to her mother

Age: 3-6
Source: Pierce County Library

Jake's Review: It's kinda cute, but I don't get why mom liked it so much -- must be a mom thing or something. The pictures are really funny and the story is easy to read but I think girls would like it better. (Mom's note: yup my little sexist pig) I really liked the dog!

Jake's Rating: 7/10

Mom's Review: The story was so sweet and childlike it made me smile and tear up at the same time. I could just read this story over and over -- just so damn beautiful. I want to move in with this family -- oh no, wait a minute -way too many kids, I would never get any reading done. The illustrations were a little difficult to get used to at first, but after a few pages I started to enjoy them. I think they just bothered my eyes a little as they have a bit of a blurry feeling to them but it really does work with the story. The detail in the illustrations are hilarious and quirky and I really enjoyed them - they had a very realistic look to them in terms of the messiness of the house, etc. A pure delight go get yourself a copy and make sure your libraries have a copy too. This is a perfect bedtime story -- well it would be if your toddler liked bedtime stories (sniff sniff)

Mom's Rating: 9.75/10 ( )